Bio-Mimicry:

The obvious deficiency in our wasteful society has been our tunnel vision on the economic principal of creative destruction as a driver of modernity, consumption and economic growth. We have fixated on structures in consumables, infrastructure and lifestyles that are modeled on a "cradle to grave" architecture.

For the developed world is to continue onward with a high quality of life, and bring the entire human race forward into modernity, a new paradigm of systems and consumables must be implemented. The efficiency of new and existing systems for modern and evolved human living must be structured according to the principals inherent in nature and architected on existing biological systems. In pristine natural environments, noting is wasted in any life cycle. From micro-organisms to flora to fauna all things have a interrelation: whether that is competitive, collaborative, predatory or symbiotic. Nature knows no waste.

Humankind, however, has involved itself and spread beyond its natural balance in all ecosystems planet wide. It has dominated the biosphere, over populated, over consumed, crushed the biodiversity necessary for continued evolution,  predatorily manipulated resources and replaced naturally occurring balanced systems with monocultures that continue to produce waste and imbalance for the very same biosphere environment that we need to continue as a species.

As population concerns are likely to continue, the requisite clamoring for development and improved standards of living are unlikely to change. This situation creates an interesting conundrum for economics and governance. How are these increasing pressures addressed under the circumstances of increased demand, deteriorating environmental conditions, and diminishing resource availability? 

The answer is bio-mimicry: we need to examine nature's profundity, frugality, its utilization of closed and open systems, zero waste reality, cradle to cradle life cycles, its predation, collaboration, competition, and symbiosis etc, to create truly cradle to cradle systems of consumption, societal architecture, and personal conduct. 

We exist because of the evolution of this model, but like any dangerous highly mutable virus, we are expanding beyond the ability of the host to bear us further. For the sake humanity and our planet, let's hope we consciously correct our conduct and find our balance in nature again. The alternative is that nature does it for us, like all other times in our home's history, and largely executed via extinction. What goes around comes around.

Smart Growth:

An issue which we have failed to have substantively constructed in the public sector is: what are the goals of growth and development in our society. If we as a society, finally, are to look at improving qualitatively as well as quantitatively, what would "smart growth" look like going forward. This is NOT an advocation of a planned society or a manifesto against free markets and capitalism. 

History has shown, and Americans inherently understand, that free markets work. Any assertion to the contrary is nonsense. Capitalism, conducted with democracy through the vehicle of constitutional liberalism, has produced the greatest opportunity, flexibility, freedom and social stability in human history. End of story.

However, capitalism doesn't by definition, prove to be what we practice here in America, although we would like to think otherwise. America's fixation with the '50's/Cold War era understanding of creative destruction, and the unfettered pursuit of abundance is frankly unsustainable in the face of modern realities, namely because, our pursuit of economic growth presently flies in the face (or frankly violates) of the first rule or use of economics: which is the study of the use of scarce resources which have numerous alternative uses and applications. Simply stated, we as consumers and citizens, have little or no understanding of the scarcity or true value of the goods and services which propel our attitudes, spending, life styles and personal conduct. 

We have dwelled in the age of supply side economics for so long (nearly 30 years) that we have artificially generated demand beyond the ability that our wages, global resources, healthful living standards, or quality of lifestyles can substantiate. Capitalism works, but it needs to be a balanced dance between supply and demand. The demand side of the equation needs robust improvement, largely in the qualitative sense. Like checks and balances in our government, consumer demand makes capitalism and modern complex economic systems work. But to do so effectively and efficiently, capitalism needs the demand side of the equation to be as smart and function as well as the supply side does. 

Instead, we consumers, have acted like cattle at the feeding trough, which is to say, consuming whatever is put in front of us: whether that is TVs, computers, food, brands, ideas, etc.

Because of our lack of intelligence, education, and general gumption, our consumerism has led us to a point where our society has proved to be thoroughly leveraged: both in public and private debt considerations. The demand side needs to exercise it's corrective power over markets. And that means smart growth: growth focused on sustainability, global opportunities, quality of life, and the awareness of the ramifications of our choices both generationally and for our one human family. 

The American model of cradle to grave product cycles, unfettered growth and rampant consumerism is destroying our planet. And under those circumstances, supply and demand will eventually become less relevant as an economic theory and become an all consuming matter of basic sustenance. Without changes in our most basic philosophies, all development will suffer: people, businesses, families, societies, corporate earnings, and anything else which so grandly headlines our news and attention, when mindful living did not. Look at your living now and say this isn't the case to the contradiction of your own reason.